Unflattering Picture Of Jordan Hints At Prosecution

Affair's Web Entangles Noted Lawyer, Friend

September 14, 1998|By Naftali Bendavid, Washington Bureau.

WASHINGTON — Monica Lewinsky was in the office of Vernon Jordan, a powerful figure in the worlds of law, business and politics, to discuss Jordan's attempts to find her a job. Suddenly, the meeting last Dec. 19 took a very different turn.

Lewinsky abruptly asked Jordan about the future of President Clinton's marriage. Struck by the unexpected question, Jordan asked if she and Clinton had a sexual relationship, and she said no.

"I did not get graphic, I did not get specific, I didn't ask if they kissed, I didn't ask if they caressed, all of which, as I understand it, is a part of the act of sex," Jordan later testified, according to the report to Congress of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

Lewinsky, though, assumed Jordan did not believe her denial. She figured the prominent attorney knew "with a wink and a nod that I was having a relationship with the president," she told a grand jury.

The question of what exactly Jordan knew could end up being very important. He is a close friend and trusted adviser to the president. He sits on numerous corporate boards. He is a former head of the National Urban League and a leading figure in the African-American community.

At 63, Jordan would seem to have it all. Now, he is inextricably--and, thanks to Starr's report, very publicly--enmeshed in a controversy that could topple a president. His fate is one of the stark questions left hanging by the report Starr submitted to Congress last week.

One surprise was just how often Jordan's name crops up in the document. He appears more than anyone else in Starr's narrative except Lewinsky, Clinton and Clinton's secretary Betty Currie.

Starr's references to Jordan are not flattering. He is portrayed as being, at least in this episode, Clinton's fixer, a man who takes care of problems. As Starr describes it, Jordan helped Clinton get Lewinsky a job to keep her quiet, oversaw her legal arrangements and kept the president informed of her legal and emotional status.

The big question, perhaps, is whether Starr will file criminal charges against Jordan, striking another blow at Clinton's inner circle. While parts of Starr's report seem to point to a possible indictment, Starr also pointedly allows for the scenario that Jordan was merely an unwitting dupe of Clinton.

Jordan's attorney, William Hundley, could not be reached for comment Sunday. Hundley and Jordan have said little about Jordan's role since Jordan testified several times before a grand jury last spring. In his few public comments, he has vigorously denied wrongdoing and said that he has helped many young people in their careers.

Three clear questions arise as a result of Starr's account: Did Jordan knowingly help Clinton obstruct justice by using his formidable contacts to find Lewinsky a job? Did he obstruct justice himself in his discussions with Lewinsky about her role in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case? And, in urging Lewinsky to throw out notes she had written to Clinton, did he tread close to the edge of the law?

By the summer of 1997, Clinton had won re-election and had ended his affair with Lewinsky. But the former intern was pushing hard to return to the White House from the Pentagon, where she had been exiled by some of Clinton's worried aides, and was being resisted by the White House staff.

Lewinsky wrote what Starr called a "peevish" letter to Clinton on July 3, sarcastically beginning "Dear Sir" and, in Starr's eyes, obliquely threatening to reveal their affair if she was not rehired at the White House. Clinton became angry at Lewinsky, she testified, warning her that it was illegal to threaten the president of the United States.

Lewinsky was becoming a peril to Clinton, according to Starr's story line. One obvious solution was for Clinton to get Lewinsky a job in New York, which she had hinted she might accept. That would keep her quiet--and far from the White House.

Lewinsky met with Clinton in his study on Oct. 11, 1997, where she brought up the idea of having Jordan, whom she knew to be well-connected, help her find a job. The president was receptive, Lewinsky said.

Lewinsky then sent Clinton a description of the kind of jobs she wanted in New York. "The most important things to me are that I am engaged and interested in my work, that I am not someone's administrative/executive assistant, and my salary can provide me a comfortable living in New York," she wrote.

It remains unclear just how instrumental Clinton was in arranging for Lewinsky and Jordan to meet, but the two sat down together Nov. 5 and discussed her hopes for working in New York. Afterward, Lewinsky sent the attorney a note: "It made me happy to know that our friend has such a wonderful confidant in you."

Jordan actually did little to help Lewinsky, Starr said, until after Dec. 5, when lawyers for Jones faxed a list of potential witnesses to Clinton's attorneys.